James Nicoll Reviews

2021’s Magus of the Library, Volume 5  is the fifth tankōbon in Mitsu Izumi’s secondary-universe fantasy manga series (Toshokan no Daimajutsushi in the original Japanese). Magus has been serialized in Good! Afternoon since November 2017. The English translation appeared in 2021.

In the last tankōbon, Theo learned that his mentor Sedona might be a raging racist. No mention of that in this volume. I suspect that this matter won’t resurface (but I could be wrong). In this tankōbon, Theo is fully absorbed in the struggle to succeed academically and become a licensed kafna (librarian). He is struggling.

Theo is a hick from a small town. While he made the best possible use of the educational resources available to him, he didn’t have access to the tutors and libraries that were open to his peers. Theo struggles where other students excel.

Theo does have qualities unmatched by his peers. For one, as a former mason he is incredibly fit. For another, his tolerance for mana is prodigious. Theo barely notices magical energies that burn other students. And there’s a third quality that may serve him well; he works hard at connecting with his fellow students. His offers of friendship are not always accepted (particularly by racists who disdain Theo because he is half Haupi). But he makes enough friends that if he can somehow graduate, he will do so with a rich professional network.

In this tankōbon we learn that Theo isn’t the only student struggling . Some struggle with physical demands; some resist the narrow gender roles open to them¹. Then there’s Cynthia, whose mana is so prodigious that she is a health hazard to almost everyone she encounters… but to not mana-tolerant Theo. 

(Just to give you some idea of how dangerous Cynthia is to most people: her emanations killed her mother. She has had to learn to warn people not to get close in a number of languages she otherwise does not speak.)

~oOo~

Much of this volume focuses on library methods. It’s not enough to acquire a vast collection. The collection needs to be cataloged and the books kept in good repair. In addition, there’s the endless struggle to relocate mis-shelved books².

Readers also learn how librarianship intersects with politics. The many nations participate in one large continental system. Hence the kafnas essentially control book availability everywhere. What they share determines what citizens know; that shapes politics. This system is not universally popular…

Librarianship might make for dry reading were it not for the author’s skill at tying all of the above into Theo’s on-going, daily struggle to become a kafna. Politics is going to have a direct impact on Theo’s life, and will no doubt feature in future volumes. I’m looking forward to finding out more.

Magus of the Library, Volume 5 is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: While the nations of this world are diverse, they all feature rigid gender roles (and the same ones). Women are barred from many professions, with the notable exception of librarian.

2: The kafna use a two-person system, one scanning the shelf and the other managing a check-list. they switch roles when one person starts to get tired and less careful. When I worked at the Dana Porter Arts Library, way back when, we had lone shelf-workers scanning shelves until their eyes bled.

Ah, memories. There was one time in the last half century that all of the books were where they were supposed to be. (If you happen to know of another such miracle, please tell me about it.) That was when we computerized the library. Every book had to be taken down, bar-coded, entered into the system, and reshelved. Dana Porter is a ten-story library, so there were a lot of books to process.